Sorta Charming, Somewhat Handsome, NotSoPrincely
by etmuse
Summary: After playing at a friend's wedding, Kurt wonders why he hasn't met Prince Charming yet. But Princes aren't always all they're cracked up to be...


Kurt has apparently stopped packing up in favour of staring into space while he leans on an unplugged speaker.

That's the first thing Blaine notices as he comes back into the ballroom after stowing the first box of cables into his car – they keep talking about getting a van but the money just isn't there and anyway, they've perfected the art of squeezing it all into the car, now.

He and Kurt have, as usual, been left to do the bulk of the breakdown; Finn and Puck both have young families now, and never put up much resistance to being shooed off home almost as soon as whatever event they're playing ends. Perhaps surprisingly, it usually goes faster with just the two of them.

From the look on Kurt's face, Blaine thinks it may take a little longer than usual tonight.

"Okay, so what's wrong?" he asks as he gets closer, clearly startling Kurt out of his reverie when he jumps. "You were fine ten minutes ago, but now you look like your last friend just died."

Kurt pushes off the speaker and swings around to perch on the edge of the low stage. "Not died," he sighs quietly. "But she did just get married."

Even though he knows Kurt doesn't mean it that way, _knows_ he's one of Kurt's best friends, Blaine can't ignore the tiny spark of hurt in his heart at the comment.

"Kurt…" he says softly, sitting down next to him.

"I know, I know," Kurt responds. "It's not like I've _lost_ her, but Mercedes was the last of my girls, you know? We were all single and fabulous together…" He punctuates the words with tired-looking jazz hands. "And now there's just me." He almost squeaks the last word, voice turning a little watery.

_It doesn't have to be that way, if you'd just look…_ Blaine thinks wistfully, but he daren't say anything out loud. He nudges Kurt with his shoulder instead. "You know you're at least partially to blame for that, right?" he smiles. "Mr Matchmaker."

Kurt snorts. "I told you to stop calling me that."

"I would," Blaine shrugs, "but you can't deny that it's true."

Kurt has, in fact, been denying that what he does is 'matchmaking' ever since Blaine met him, mid-way through his junior year of college.

Kurt had dropped in and forcibly taken control of both set and costume design barely three weeks before the opening night of the production of 'My Fair Lady' the student theatre group Blaine had just joined were staging.

By the time dress rehearsals were upon them, the sets and costumes were perfected – a feat that had looked dangerously unlikely under their original direction – one of Kurt's 'assistants' was dating their Higgins, and Blaine was in love.

In the years since, Blaine has watched Kurt match up over a dozen of his friends with partners they'd eventually gone on to marry, all while Kurt insisted that all he'd done was 'introduce two friends I thought might get along.'

"I do seem to have a talent for meeting the perfect partners for my friends," Kurt admits. "It's only my own Prince Charming that's proving to be elusive. He was supposed to have swept me off my feet years ago."

Kurt glares down at his feet for a second as if he blames _them_ for remaining unswept. Although Blaine doesn't think that's really the problem. Kurt has been swept off his feet numerous times during the course of their friendship, only to fall flat on his face a few weeks later when 'Prince Charming' turns out to be charming but very little else.

He always has his friends there to catch him but tonight, for possibly the first time, Blaine is really seeing the cracks leftover from every time they've pieced him back together. "We've had this discussion before about the problems with Prince Charming," he says wryly.

"I know, I know," Kurt sighs. "Charming but not sincere. I was there for that show three times, remember? Not to mention the months of running lines."

Blaine does. It had been one of his first proper roles with the group, and Kurt's presence at a full half of their six-performance run had, at the time, filled him with unignorable hope for what it might mean.

"Prince Sincere just doesn't have the same ring to it, though," Kurt continues. "And neither of them seem particularly included to actually show up."

Not for the first time, Blaine wishes he had the courage to say something. But he can't. Kurt is, for all intents and purposes, his best friend, and there's no way he's messing that up with an awkward confession of his unrequited feelings.

"He will," he says instead, in his best reassuring voice. "Probably when you least expect him."

Kurt huffs. "Knowing my luck he'll turn up a week before I have a massive deadline at work and I'll be too busy to even notice him."

Blaine shakes his head. "Maybe you just need to find another you."

Kurt's nose wrinkles up as he frowns at Blaine, clearly confused. "Blaine, I'm pretty sure one of me is more than enough for any relationship. Can you even imagine the carnage if…"

"Not like that," Blaine interrupts him. "I meant someone else with your superior it's-not-matchmaking-really skills. You could stick to pairing everyone else off and let someone else worry about you."

Kurt looks contemplative. "It sounds good in theory, but… it also sounds a lot like giving up control and you know how I feel about that."

Blaine can't help his grin. Kurt can be more than a little bit of a control freak, but at least he's a _self-confessed_ control freak. And besides, things tend to work out for the best when everyone just lets Kurt take charge. He's a _competent_ control freak. It's secretly one of Blaine's favourite things about him.

"Think of it less as giving up control and more as letting someone present you with options," he suggests. Part of him can't believe he's actually attempting to talk Kurt into letting someone help him find a boyfriend. It's unsurprisingly the same part that wants to jump up and down and shout 'Pick me, pick me! I'm right here!' It's a part of him he's been trying hard to ignore for years.

"While you may have a point," Kurt concedes, "what am I going to be doing? You say I could carry on matchmaking for all my friends – and yes, that is me finally admitting that that's exactly what I've been doing – but I'm actually sort of running low on single friends."

"There's me," Blaine blurts, wishing he could take it back almost before it even finishes leaving his mouth. It's not like he hasn't dated since meeting and falling for Kurt, although at least on his part it's always stayed strictly casual, but having Kurt actively try to set him up with someone else is too painful to even contemplate. "Not that I need for you to go looking for someone for me," he adds quickly, standing up and turning to start folding away a microphone stand.

They don't have time to be talking about this; they've got a stage to pack up.

"So you're too good for my matchmaking skills, is that it?" Kurt says from behind him. Blaine, unable to see his expression, can't quite tell whether the hurt in his voice is real or a playful affectation.

"No, no, that's not it," he replies, deciding that taking the words at face value is probably the safest option in the situation. "If circumstances were different I'd absolutely jump at the chance for you to find someone for me but…"

He pauses, dropping the folded stand into a waiting box and twisting back to face Kurt.

He doesn't know what to say. The truth is obviously out of the question, but nothing else is coming to mind. Nothing that Kurt would actually buy, anyway.

"Look, there's someone I like, someone I've liked for a while," he says eventually, skirting around the edges of the truth. "But he's not interested, not like I want him to be, anyway. And it just wouldn't be fair on any guy you introduced to me if I'm still hung up on someone else."

He knows this last part all too well – he's treated some probably pretty great guys fairly shoddily over the years because they're just not Kurt, and he has never been able to make himself contemplate anything serious with anyone else.

Kurt's face turns indignant as he pushes himself to his feet. "Okay, so first we find a way to get you over this idiot, then…"

"He's not an idiot," Blaine interrupts almost reflexively.

Kurt raises an eyebrow and fixes Blaine with a look that, according to the friends he still has that knew him back then, he has been perfecting since his teens.

"Blaine," he starts pointedly. "If he has a chance with you and he's not taking it, he is quite clearly a fool." He smiles and continues, "I may be biased as one of your best friends, but if he's waiting for someone better to come along, he's in for a long wait."

Blaine's heart pounds at the words, and it's a fight to keep the blatant adoration off his face. "It's not… I mean, I don't think it's that, it's just…"

"No seriously," Kurt cuts in. "If he can't see what a good thing he has just waiting for him, he doesn't deserve you. You're kind, and loyal, and not exactly hard on the eyes. If this guy can ignore all of that and not even give you a chance then he is clearly either blind, stupid or both. You need to find some way to move on and find someone who will actually appreciate all that you…"

He doesn't entirely know where it comes from, but Blaine can't listen to Kurt inadvertently putting himself down like this anymore and finds himself blurting loudly, "God, Kurt, it's _you_."

Kurt's tirade tapers off immediately as he freezes.

Blaine knows how he feels; despite the not-insignificant part of him that wants, needs, to flee, he can't make himself move. He's trapped, staring at a motionless Kurt as emotion after emotion races through his eyes at breakneck speed.

"Me?" Kurt eventually squeaks, his face barely moving. Blaine bites his lips and nods. Kurt hasn't run screaming for the hills or burst into tears, which he supposes is a good sign, but the lengthening awkward silence is not. He has probably ruined their friendship forever and he doesn't have the slightest clue how to fix it.

Kurt's mouth moves, but no sound comes out. Blaine is half anticipating, half dreading whatever it is he's trying to finds the words to say.

"Why didn't you ever _say_ anything?" Kurt splutters after a long minute.

"I didn't want _this_ to happen!" Blaine cries, waving his arms between himself and Kurt to indicate the uncomfortable tension that has descended. "I just…" He takes a deep breath and tries to marshal his thoughts into any sort of order. "At first I just didn't know what to say, and then we became friends and you clearly weren't interested in more so I didn't want to mess up the friendship with my stupid feelings. So I just kept it to myself. At least until now, when I just have to go blurting it out like an idiot and ruin everything. If you can't see a way to be friends any more I totally…"

"Blaine!" Kurt says loudly, right in his face, grabbing his upper arms. From the look on his face it's not the first time he's said it.

"You haven't ruined anything," he says firmly.

Given that, despite the steadiness of his voice, Blaine can feel him _shaking_ as he says it, he's not entirely inclined to agree. Kurt brings a hand up to quiet him before he can even open his mouth to protest the statement.

"Nothing," Kurt says, and the shaking has started to spread to his voice now. "I don't know…" He pauses and blows out a breath before starting again. "I don't know how you managed to convince yourself that I wasn't interested, but I do know that you haven't ruined one single thing."

Blaine just _stops_. Kurt cannot possibly be saying what he thought he just heard him say. He just can't. Blaine must have hit his head hard on something in the last few seconds and knocked himself into a dream state, because that can't have just happened.

He runs through the last thirty seconds again in his brain but the words stay the same.

"You… you mean?" he stutters, searching Kurt's face for any inkling that he's wrong, that he really did just hallucinate Kurt's confession and he actually said something entirely different.

"I mean I spent the first six months after we met practically _throwing_ myself at you without you ever even noticing," Kurt says quietly, his grip almost painfully tight on Blaine's shoulder. "I mean there's a reason that in over seven years of friendship you're the one friend I've never tried to introduce to a potential partner."

Blaine can actually _hear_ his heart pounding, blood rushing through his ears. He can't tear his eyes from Kurt's, completely overwhelmed at finally hearing words spoken that he's only been able to dream of for years. He knows she should say something, do something, but it's all he can do at this moment just to stay upright.

"Blaine?" Kurt pulls back just a little, his eyebrows furrowing. "Are you okay? If you've changed your mind or this isn't actually what you want then we can deal with that but…"

He doesn't stop to think about it. He just knows that he can't let Kurt finish that thought, can't let him worry like that for even a second longer.

Kurt's dress shirt is slippery under his fingertips as he leans forward, hands wrapping themselves around Kurt's waist, and finally, _finally_, kisses him.

Blaine has imagined this moment hundreds – thousands – of times in the years since he met Kurt. None of them hold a candle to the real thing.

Kurt takes a heart-stopping second to respond, lips soft but unmoving at first, but when the surprise clears and he starts kissing back… Blaine could die in that moment a happy man. There is no reticence in Kurt's kiss, his lips moving enthusiastically against Blaine's as they twine themselves around each other.

Blaine cannot contain his whimper of pleasure when Kurt's tongue traces his lower lip and he opens eagerly, diving into the deeper kiss. There are no worries about technique or finesse; he just needs to be as close to Kurt as he possibly can. He explores every nuance of Kurt's mouth, throwing everything he has, everything he is into the kiss and gathering every scrap close to him when Kurt does the same; he doesn't want to forget a single moment of this.

Time might as well have stopped, the only thing Blaine can think is Kurt, Kurt, _Kurt._ Kurt wants this, wants _him_. That knowledge is sending his mind reeling almost as much as the pressure of Kurt's soft lips against his own, as the heat of Kurt's fingers as they slide across his face.

"I'm crazy about you," he murmurs breathlessly when they finally part for air, noses still nestled together.

Kurt lifts his head just enough to meet Blaine's eyes. "I know the feeling," he whispers hotly, fingers tangling into the hair at the nape of Blaine's neck.

Blaine lets himself get lost for a minute in the warm affection and sheer want shining through in Kurt's gaze. Somehow, in that moment, he just knows that everything is going to work out.

Abandoning any attempt at resistance, he tightens his arms around Kurt's back and pulls him back into a heady, glorious kiss.

In the back of his mind, he knows that they still have work to do – there's nearly an entire stage's worth of equipment to pack up, and he knows from experience how shirty venue staff can be when made to wait – but it just doesn't seem important.

Everything in the world that matters right now is right here in his arms; Blaine's not going anywhere.

_We've always played our songs for everyone else in their own key,_

_Maybe now we'll get to play one just for you and me_


End file.
